From marginality to protagonism

representations of women in fantastic literature in an analysis of the tale “A nevrose da cor”, by Júlia Lopes de Almeida

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the representations of the feminine in the tale "A nevrose da cor", written by Júlia Lopes de Almeida, from a feminist criticism point of view and based on the Marvelous in Literature, in order to emphasizethe the ways in which women are constructed, in this literary modality, from two perspectives: the perspective of the canonical fantastic, by male authorship, which places the female on the sidelines, as an object; and the perspective of the fantastic by female authorship, in which the woman figures as the protagonist. As theoretical contribution, considerations by Tzvetan Todorov (1981), Irène Bessière (2012), Francisco Vicente de Paula Júnior (2011), Elaine Showalter (1994) and Cecil Jeanine Albert Zinani (2010) will be used. The androcentric discourse, which postulates the inferiority of the second sex, echoes in canonical literature, especially in fantastic literature, representing women as an object, subaltern muse or personification of evil, associating them with witches, demons and evil beings. In the fantastic written by women, as in Almeida's tale, whose central character is Issira, the female takes a protagonist position, having a voice and expressing her confrontations with men and with herself.